State of the Art
The invention relates to a basketball-stand, comprising a base which carries at least one support system which in turn carries a beam provided with means for attachment of a back-board and dunk ring, said beam--and thereby the stand--being capable of being moved between a lower or storage position and a higher or playing position, power storage means being provided, acting between a point connected to said base and a point connected to said at least one support system, and accumulating power when the stand is brought into its storage position, which power is relieved and the accumulated energy allowed to be freed when the stand is brought into its playing position.
Said power storage means are usually resilient means, more particularly a packet of springs. The springs are adjustable, and they are tensioned when, by manual force, the beam which carries backboard and dunk ring is brought down, with manual force, from its playing position into its storing position.
The assignee company has manufactured and marketed basketball-stands of this type, provided with means for lifting at least part of the weight of the stand from the floor so as to immobilize the stand in its playing position with respect to the playing field, and especially to prevent the wheels from gripping the ground and rolling away. These means were formed by a pair of threaded rods, mounted vertically near the front corners of the base in corresponding internally threaded bushes, these threaded rods being provided each with a hand-wheel at the top and a foot-plate to rest upon the floor when, by turning the wheels, the rods were brought down, first simply into contact with the floor, done by continuing to exert a turning force on the wheels, to at least partially lift the whole basketball-stand a little. For the ultimate security against horizontal movements in all directions, particularly during the game, there were two manually operable pins which could be let down into specially made holes in the floor. Nevertheless these floor pins alone were certainly not enough, and a certain minimum of upward displacement of the base and the wheels was necessary. Turning the wheels was therefore a task which required a quite considerable manual effort.